1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates generally to a new and improved process for reproducing an original painting or the like, and more particularly, to an improved process for reproducing an oil or acrylic painting or the like, from the original artwork to produce a reproduction which has a relief surface and texture to it which is identical to the relief surface and texture of the original artwork and which maintains good colour integrity.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
Various methods have been prepared to copy or reproduce an oil or acrylic painting or the like, in order to produce a copy which is the same as or similar to the original.
Such copies generally fall within two categories. The first category includes copies of the artwork which lack surface texture or relief dimensions of the original. The second category includes copies which attempt to copy the relief dimensions or surface texture of the original artwork. It is to the second category to which this invention is directed.
The first category includes such copies broadly classified as artistic polychrome prints, photographs and the like and while these may be produced quite inexpensively, and while they exhibit good colour integrity, they lack the relief dimensions or surface texture of the original and thus are not as acceptable as would be a reproduction which duplicated faithfully the surface texture of the original.
The second category has in fact met with limited success although the quality of these copies in reproductions has not been high. The process for producing such copies generally involve the production of a type of plastic transparent layer which is given texture by using a mold made from an original painting (see patents DE-PS 494,894; FR-PS No. 1,521,466; DE-AS No. 2,019,699 and DE-OS No. 2,352,966).
With these processes, problems arose with colour fidelity and the effects created by the transparent relief layer. Attempts have been made to overcome these problems as shown in French patent 1,493,516; French patent 1,548,337 and Canadian patent 990,506 granted on Jun. 8, 1976 to Dimension Weld Int. Corp. which shows the use of a thermoplastic transparent sheet.
Another process has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,744 granted on Aug. 25, 1981. The product of this patent to Rudolf et al. does not exhibit the same degree of relief as the finished product of the present invention. This difference is as a result of the shock cooling step which is a part of the present process but is not a part of the process of Rudolf et al. Rudolf uses what would be conventional cooling of the product by allowing it to cool to room temperature by exposing the product to ambient air. The present inventor has found that with this process, the rebound effect will occur which decreases the relief of the reproduction over time.
More recently, a process was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,308,224 which issued on Dec. 29, 1981 and which was developed to produce such reproductions of reasonable price and of acceptable fidelity.
This patent discloses a process which uses a relief mold taken from the original and a thermoplastic foil imprinted with the colour picture corresponding to the original. The foil, while being heated, was placed with its imprinted side down on the relief mold and a textile layer placed over the foil.
The combination was then heated causing the flowable component of the textile layer to flow into the relief surface of the mold, thus duplicating the texture of the original painting.
However, this process only partially duplicated the relief dimensions of the original artwork and also, after standing, the texture tended to reduce.